The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lobelia plant botanically known as Lobelia×hybrida and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Balwatazmi’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Arroyo Grande, Calif. during August 2002. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Lobelia cultivars with unique flower coloration and a vigorous, mounded, and semi-trailing growth habit.
The new Lobelia cultivar is the result of open-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is the proprietary Lobelia valida breeding selection designated LOB-133, not patented, characterized by dark lavender-blue and white bicolored flowers, dark green-colored foliage, and upright, poorly-branched growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is unknown, but is from a group of plants that includes Lobelia erinus and Lobelia×hybrida plants. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated open-pollination during January 2003 in a controlled environment at Arroyo Grande, Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since January 2003 at Arroyo Grande, Calif. and West Chicago, Ill. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.